Lower Moreland shows dominance in win over Hatboro-Horsham

HORSHAM >> In Saturday’s Hatter’s Tip-Off Classic boys final, Hatboro-Horsham had the bigger, stronger and more athletic team.

With their size and athleticism, the Hatters exploited a couple mismatches they had on the court. Clifton Moore and Jay Davis combined for 32 points as Lower Moreland tried to figure out a combination of players to try and slow down the Hatboro-Horsham duo.

While the Hatters were the more physically imposing team, the Lions were the better basketball team all night long and Lower Moreland stunned the Hatters on their home court 53-37.

“We played really good basketball,” Lower Moreland coach Seth Baron said. “We know we’re going to be outsized and lighter than every team we face and we know that it’s got to be execution on the one end and it’s got to be gritty team defense on the other.”

You do not really have to look much further than the scoring distribution of the two teams to see the discrepancy between them.

Lower Moreland used eight plays in the game. Every player scored at least two points, with Danny Duffey leading all Lion scorers with 15 points followed by Tyler Milan’s 10. Lower Moreland had six of the eight players it used finish with at least five points.

“They beat us in every aspect of the game tonight,” Hatboro-Horsham coach Ed Enoch said. “With their brain, with their heart, they out-coached us, they out-played us, it wasn’t even that close of a game.”

On the other hand, Moore and Davis accounted for all the Hatboro-Horsham points except for two late field goals from Ezekiel Sloan. Hatboro-Horsham struggled to find and offensive rhythm all night as the Lions played solid and smart team defense.

“You can’t win that way,” Enoch said. “You need to have balance and you got to get scoring from other people and we certainly didn’t tonight.”

Coming off a very solid season a year ago, Lower Moreland returns a squad loaded with quality seniors. One key piece the Lions will have to replace is a rim protector that they lost in Phil Madden due to graduation.

Saturday night served as a big test as to how Lower Moreland can fill the big void left due to Madden’s departure and passed with flying colors at least for a night.

“We put last year behind us. We know how great last year was but we really try to preach that is behind us,” Baron said. “Phil set a school record for most charges taken. He really was the defensive anchor in there and we’re finding guys to fill that lane. We’re shuffling eight and sometimes nine guys and it’s really paying off.”